House of Balloons // The Weeknd // (Self-Released)

"bring the drugs baby, i can bring the pain"

The Weeknd has made a meteoric impact on the indie scene, perhaps the greatest any RnB artist has made in 'proper' music circles (rather than say, pop). Half of interest is of course causd by the fact that it is interesting people who would normally shy away from RnB, and soon enough any music that gets caught up in this whirlpool of hype is devoid of any criticism of the actual sounds. So sure, with any paradoxically popular artist like The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye), there are going to be accusations of bloggers and listeners following the crowd, unthinkingly obsessing over whatever Pitchfork doth proclaim Best New Music. A half-assed listen of House of Balloons and you may be able to write it off as nothing dissimilar to anything hitting the top 40 (that is to say: vacuous, unorignal), but there is a load more here, enough to inspire the hype in the first place.

House of Balloons isn't exactly without precedent, last years How to Dress Well croonings are probably the closest in terms of style. Certainly there is a trend for more RnB influences in underground music, but these a generally aesthitical touches from disparate sources, nothing has been so unapolagetically RnB indebted and yet so deftly produced whilst not intended for the club. Where typical Club music espouses simple, often facile lyricisms about sex and alcahol, petty platitudes to be half-ignored on drunken dancefloors, House of Balloons flips this on its' head. As well as these overusd themes, club music also attempts to glamourise the act of clubbing itself, as we see most clearly in the music videos of pristine club floors, sexy people and tonnes of dollar bills. Abel constructs an almost noire element to his lyrics, taking the illusions portrayed as fact in the RnB aesthetic, a kind of new pan-atlantic aspirational dream, and exposes the cavernous dark other side. This is why the album works so well, as typical RnB is taken as a starting point, but is torn apart in a heart-wrenching anti-parody. That is, instead of taking the vacuous lyircs and lampooning them, he tighten them and injects them with his own club jaded emotions and experiences, to create something that sounds so similar, but so scarily different from its forebears.

Moving on from the lyrical themes, the album has an sparse and minimalist musical backdrop to carry the lyrics. The beats are slow and heavy, creating a gigantic swagger that the vocals sound uneasily confident riding upon. There are also a tonne of samples and clever synth licks, that satelite the singing, which of course takes center stage. Abels voice sounds slightly anonymous and generically RnB in some verses, but this serves to highlight the irony of his words, and he can throw his voice around with agile ease. Title track House of Balloons / Glass Tables best emphasises the vast void between the two modes he intertwines on this record, the first half being crooning, plantive, before diving into a bassy, sparse, even slightly angry groove, propelled by a simple beat and eerie, twisted synth that could almost come from dubstep.

The album is very difficult to get a grip on entirely, the intrumentation and his voice are both sleek and slippery. The record both shows distain of cliche RnB whilst absolutely celebrates some of the aesthetics of the genre. It stands on its own as a chilling, heartbroken record, inhabiting and exposing the dark regions of a hedonism and clubbing, never entirely commiting to one particular overall feeling, Abel rightly cannot entirely come to terms with the music that has so infected his (as well as our) conciousness.

Free download:

http://the-weeknd.com/

I // Corinthian //

Recently, the UK underground music scene has exploded into the general music conciousness, and many acts have attempted to incorperate the sounds of UK Bass with more typically mainstream sounds. Unfortunately, Hybrid artists never spawn perfectly between the two musical camps by some immaculate conception, instead they branch across from either the "rock" side or the "electronic" side, perhaps utilising all the techniques of the other side, but inevitably always end up lumped in with the scene they orginated from, no matter how much they attempt to hide their ancestry. James Blake will always be part of the Bass scene no matter how much he tinkers with his piano, and it is the same for Mount Kimbie and a heap of otherwise pioneering acts. But with Corinthian, while still bearing the marks of a typical rock band, have merged with the dark, moody, bassy atmosphere of the post-Burial music scene, but without the dreadful po-faced seriousness and pretension that often comes part of the package.

Instead of buzzing bass lines that hit at despair and seclusion, the first track of I has a playful synthline riding above it, a guitar line that sounds like the riff from Hunting for Witches and an emotionally distant (cool) vocal line. The track is quite short, but parts are constantly being swapped out, so it never quite settles in. However, the atmosphere created is fun and slightly dancey despite the cavernous bass, the parts all contrast and work off each other to create a very entertaining track and a mood that is hard to pin down.

The other tracks off of the EP are similarly contructed, mixing funky rock bass lines and intesnse drumming and bass stabs. Instead of trying to mix the constituent parts together to create blandness, the different parts, dance hi-hats and agressive guitars, are distinctly seperated and jammed together in a way that feels very organic, albeit hyperactive and restless. Overall, the three tracks showcase an absolute tonne of ideas and provide a very clear vision of their style, suggesting the band could make something very big.

Listen to it here:

http://corinthian.bandcamp.com/album/i

New Stuff //

Joy Orb:

Missus - http://youtu.be/S-Kt1bQRpFk

Untightled (with Kavsrave) - http://youtu.be/ZChdQKkTsxc

Wade in - http://youtu.be/-ztPgknjB68

Pangaea:

Won't Hurt - http://youtu.be/nOxA2fQj43U

Inna Daze - http://youtu.be/8cKWVZbEyJM

Blawan:

Bohla - http://youtu.be/QQyEBaZAV50

James Blake:

Tep and the Logic - http://youtu.be/wNWTxOqKqBE

Untitled - http://youtu.be/Xbu4ikG2Oac

You Know Your Youth - http://youtu.be/h0ptuFYseXg

KOL

James Blake // Plan B Brixton // 14.01.11

+ support from Cloud Boat

Gigantic bass drops may be the norm in dubstep, and even in the strange stylistic fudge James Blake finds himself, but with a meandering guitar duo like Cloud Boat it is probably the furthest thing from your mind. Their intense bass walls seem little more than a novelty however, it just doesn't work with their earnest indie sprawl. Ending with a cover CMYK was also a joke that far outstays its welcome, but they certainly seem to aspire to create the dubstep fusion (an ugly term I know) that Blake does, but without any of the immediacy. Nevertheless, they are very new and act as a great warm up for the main event.

James Blake is palpably nervous when clambering on stage, and rightly so; the venue is packed and his debut album is not officially out for nearly another month and there is literally no stylistic precedent for the songs he will be playing. All he is riding on is the immense hype; a fickle beast that could collapse inexplicably at any moment. In fairness this is a bit of an over dramatisation; there is a tonne of drunken singing originating from the other side of the stage than James Blake, his drummer and his guitarist (Airhead, who collaborated with Blake on an EP), indicative of the fact that release dates mean little to people now.

The first few piano chords of opener Unluck lead into an engulfing syren's scream of noise, his voice twisted from quiet and complentative to tortured and yearning, yet drowned out by creeping thunder of the bass and the razor edge of the synth. If it sounds a little chilled on the record, here the brutallity of the lower end is maximised, deep like the Marina Trench, dark and subsonic. It exposes his dubstep roots whilst playing against his delicate voice for emotional effect. In fact, James Blake creates music to move you; both emotionally and physicaly.

Wilhelms Scream and I Never Learnt To Share tread a similar path, as they build from Blakes near-naked vocals, mixed with layers and layers of autotune and synth, culminating in a dense walls of sound, shaking the room and drowning out all the other senses, "like a waterfall in slow motion" for sure. It is such a contrast from the record, where the dubstep side seems quelled, here it has been unleashed, not better than the LP, but very different. To Care (Like You) bubbles along, a lighter backdrop stemming from the more recent housey experiments in the bass culture, but no less emotionally devestating. Here in particular the digital mixes with the analogue nearly seamlessly, and even the vague suggestion of a pedal being pushed or a switch being flicked only adds to the excitement of a style of music that is usually created in sterility coming to life. Not that the live paradigm limits them; Blakes vocals are are deftly sampled live, cut up and pitch-shifted as much as on record. The new context only adds to the rawness, especially for the obligatory Limit To Your Love, which is renewed as the sub bass physically vibrates and resonates around the small room and large crowd. He ends where he first started, with anthemic dubstep, covering Digital Mysticz Anti-War Dub, which is the lightest and most straighforward track of the night. Blake is now sounding exstatic and confident in the hypnotic simplicty, he has made the same progression from humble beginnings that his tracks make, a trend that can only continue into the future.

Blake has had immense pressure lumped on him to produce a great album. My review of that will follow, but telling from this perfomance he has the confindence and creativity to work as a slightly more mainstream performer. The short set was more like a taster for things to come, and despite the general cyncism about the blogging community for its minute attention span, here we see an artist creating something 'real', something that will stay with people for a while.

Tracks that I have been listening to lately //

The end of the year always signals tonnes of end-of-year lists, where I get a chance to go back over tunes that I may have missed. So recently I have been listening to practically no "new" music, so no proper blog posts. Nevertheless here is a list of links to the best of 2010, and before:

Little Dragon // Scribble Paper (Floating Points Remix) // http://youtu.be/qTEnJJ_k4g0

Floating Points Ensemble // Post Suite // http://youtu.be/zDc4VWiQMrE - This guy is so versatile

Studio // West Side // http://youtu.be/po8e8nftgqI - Solid Good Times - Yannis from Foals recommended this on his twitter, and it is obvious he likes it as it sounds very much like them, but with an absolutely chilled atmosphere rather than their intense energy; its dubby, lazy, danceable and absolutely immense. The album's massive too.

Kode9 // Black Sun // http://youtu.be/8Z0VSvu-ro0 - The hyberdub manager has a new album out this year, named after this song but not including it, which is a bit of a shame as it Kode9 at his very best

Mala // Alicia // http://youtu.be/WpzzGXBW4GA - Sexy Dubstep?

Titus Andronicus // A More Perfect Union // http://youtu.be/dFHlK8ZXgvE - America, Fuck Yeh

Deerhunter // Helicopter // http://youtu.be/G5RzpPrOd-4 - Wet

Liars // Mr Your on Fire Mr // http://youtu.be/Pza75oWGB2c

Kassem Mosse // Untitled [Laid] // http://youtu.be/AkV3bIQ2pa0

Jacques Greene // (Baby I don't Know) What You Want // http://youtu.be/lIDhX8cpjtI - This guy has some great stuff out on Night Slugs

ESG // UFO // http://youtu.be/X_vuSse9sFY - Never heard these guys directly before a few days ago, but I had heard their influence in styles as diverse as hip hop and dance-punk

...And you will know us by the trail of dead // Mistakes and Regrets // http://youtu.be/xgqEWJ8AC9o - Just a gigantic riff

Oh, and I have created a twitter account for this blog: twitter.com/onlyvibrations

Top Songs of the Year //

So its that time of year again.

So the top ten is below, but here is another 20 that I haven't put in any particular order:

Me and the devil // Gil Scott-Heron // (XL)
The Let Down // George Fitzgerald // (Hotflush)
Maybes (James Blake Remix) // Mount Kimbie // (Hotflush)
Love cry (Joy Orbison Remix) // Four Tet // (Domino)
Eyesdown (Floating Points Remix) // Bonobo (feat. Andreya Triana) // (Ninja Tune)
Before // Scuba // (Hotflush)
Red Lights // Holy Fuck // (Young Turks)
See Birds (moon) // Balam Acab // (Tri Angle)
Odessa // Caribou // (City Slang)
Wut // Girl Unit // (Night Slugs)
Crossed Out // Pariah //(R&S)
Stableface // Eleven Tigers // (Soul motive)
India lately // Gold Panda // (Notown)
Fram // Blawan // (Hessle)
Theives in the night // Hot Chip //(EMI)
Evelyn // Fabtastic Mr Fox // (Black Acre)
Deadness // darkstar // (Hyperdub)
Pow Pow // LCD Soundsytem // (DFA)
King Night // Salem // (Sony)
... and the world laughs with you // Flying Lotus (feat. Thom Yorke) // (Warp)

Top 10:

10// Journey to the Core of the Unknown Sphere // Space Dimension Controller // (Clone Royal Holland)


9 // Hologram // These New Puritans // (Domino)


8 // Night Air (Ramadanman Refix) // Jamie Woon // (Cadent Sounds)


7 // Rubber // Yuck // (Fat Possum)


6 //Black Gold // Foals // (Transgrassive)


5 //I'll Stay // James Blake // (R&S)


4 // Chem Trails // No Age // (Sub Pop)


3 // Field // Mount Kimbie // (Hotflush)


2 // I Only Know (What I Know Now) // James Blake // (R&S)



...


1 // So Derobe // Joy Orbison // (Aus)

Fireworks (feat. Alicia Keys) (Deadboy Slo-Mo House Edit) // Drake // Self Released

Apperently, Deadboy isn't that keen on Drake, as his remix of Fireworks does not contain any of his rapping, despite it being his track. What it does have is Alicia Keys vocal, but pitchshifted so to be unrecognizable, sounding more like some early 00's garage singer. In fact, the track is a complete reinvention, starting out with sparse piano chords (I would say influenced by James Blakes' Klavierwerke, but as far as I can tell this has been hanging round on the internet longer), and an understated house beat, with 2step syncopation propelling it along. Alicia keys vocal wraps round the skeleton, the repeating "all we see are fireworks" is strangely affecting as it shifits in and out of focus, and shifts up and down in pitch. With all the haunting melancholia it is no doubt greatly indebted to Burial, especially with the slow-burning bass hum. Deadboy flirted with the sadder, deeper side of bass music with last years great U Cheated EP, but on this track he has taken it to rediculous levels. But whatever, it is just a great track.

myspace.com/deadboysoundboy

itsnotrightbutitsok.tumblr.com

BB / Ladywell // Joy Orbison // Doldrums

Joy Orbison has kept a relatively low profile this year after the ridiculous amount of attention he got last year from Hyph Mngo. This is his first release since The Shrew Would Have Cushioned the Blow, which featured a much less immediate sound, but nevertheless had the tell tale signs of the talented producer. Also on that EP was an remix by Actress of The Shrew, which completely inverted the 2step track and transformed it into a stretched-out house tune, with all the weirdness and confidence of Actress' work.

That seems to have rubbed off on Joy Orb as BB and the flip Ladywell are almost unrecognisable as he has taken a step away from his 2step roots and created two gigantic house hits. BB is the most Actress influenced as a pitch-shifted vocal sample of someone muttering "they got us man", its seriousness is completely incongruous to the rest of the music, exactly like the vocal sample on The Shrew remix. It actually seems oddly similar to Jamie xx's remix of Gil-Scott Heron. The track has a very prominent 4/4 beat, which is to be expected, that acts as a skeleton for an immaculate bubbling synth riff, which is playful and flirts with a syncopated snare. The only remnant of the old Joy Orb is the distant rising synth.

Ladywell starts off very sparsely, it chugs along with a standard 4/4 beat and simple bass line, but this is used as a framework for the copious and idiosyncratic sounds he throws on top. First a vocal sample (this time singing) is dialed in with a simple riff, almost like a ringtone. But the initial simplicity becomes chaotic as spiralling synth riffs join, sometimes they mix together, sometimes they don't; it is very spontaneous and organic. That with the snare being introduced out of nowhere, the track soon becomes very unpredictable. Unfortunately it ends too soon, but both tracks show an amazing new side to Joy Orb, especially after some dismissed him as a one-hit-wonder.

BB:

Ladywell:

myspace.com/joyorbison

NY is Killing Me // Jamie xx (?) // (young turks / xl)

Jamie Smith has been a busy man. Fresh from winning the Mercury prize with The xx, he has remixed a string of high profile artists, and even has a single forthcoming on Numbers records. But today there was a big reveal: he is remixing the entire of Gil Scott-Heron's album I'm New Here, (called We're New Here) with NY is Killing Me as the first glimpse.

The idea could really work well as Jamie's style requires great vocal samples to manipulate and contort into inhuman shapes, so the great range of emotions and tones of Gil Scott-Herons voice is ample ammunition for an album. NY is Killing Me is a great showcase Jamie Smiths' technique, the rough old-man vocals of Gil sound even more world weary when piercing through the clean half-time beat and throbbing bass; distinctly contrasting with the dark, dancey backdrop. For the first minute I was worried Jamie was afraid to distort the vocals out of respect, but soon a background pitch-shifted cry plays with the vocals, like distant conscience voices trying to be heard. And, as a whole, the repetitive beat and the echoey voice make it like and eerie dream, like half-remembering his tales in his corroded voice.

I am definitely excited to hear the whole album, which is released Feb next year.

werenewhere.com

Pariah // Safehouses EP // (r&s)

Pariahs 6-track EP is certainly grand in terms of length, but unfortunately he has not been able to craft something as spectacular as his previous R&S release Detroit Falls. Or at least the first couple of tracks are less than inspiring, taking a derivative approach in a scene (if you can call it that) which is devoted to creating new sounds and new beats.

Fortunately, perhaps with the pressure to produce a hit reduced, the EP picks up with Railroad. Upfront there is the funky beat, but the track has a melancholic core that is just hinted at; the flashes of sub bass, and the Burial like cries. Yes, this too isn't particularly forward thinking, but the production is crisp and full of subtleties: think more of a consolidation of Burial, Joy Orbison, Scuba and many other electonic artists, the crushed up drum'n'bass fill is an obvious theft from Ramadanman. The music is extremely dense and interesting to pick apart and the last four tracks are by no means boring, there are little flecks of synth and vocals that are constantly shifting and transforming. But is a little pedestrian, and you will have heard it all before, just perhaps not all on the same vinyl.

The eponymous and final last track is a fuzzed out, blissful soundscape, lacking beats. It functions as an unique turn for what is a reasonably good EP, and hints at future expositions into other sonic territories. There is a huge undercurrent of melancholia to all of Safehouses, and it is no surprise that 'melancholia' is another term for nostalgia: this is knowingly indebted to his precursors, the distant piano chords and sound of a playground on C-Beams shows that Arthur Cayzer is deliberately basking in the fun of theses past tunes. It is just too bad he did not attempt to break new ground, because he has the potential to be massive.

C-Beams:

Crossed Out:

myspace.com/pariahbeats

Twisted Voices: Interesting Pitchfork Article //

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7886-new-vocabulary/

Pitchfork often gets a load of flack, but this article is very well-thought out, it really taps into the big movement of using processed vocals for great emotional impact. I can't help but feel there could be a load more names on the list, but nevertheless there are some great tunes that I may get round to reviewing.

Lucky Shiner // Gold Panda // (notown)

Over the course of a few relatively low-key releases, Gold Panda has carved himself a neat little niche in the current electronic landscape. He creates dance songs written about a forever on/off relationship with the east, using old, forgotten samples that are chopped up and sequenced rhythmically with the beat. The singles he has released have all been short snapshots into his interesting production technique, and it was no surprise Quitters Raga gained him a load of attention. The release after that, You (the first song of the album, not the last), whilst pretty, frustratingly seemed to be the same song with different samples. I cannot say I wasn't slightly worried that he had used up his creativity; a whole album of it could get boring very quickly.

No worries as Gold Panda's obsession with the east is fascinating for the listener to pry in on; Oriental influences are omnipresent on the album but never dominating, like he was writing standard dance songs but could not help but include them. The album is an aural recount of months spent in an entirely different culture; he exudes the confusion and fascination that any foreigner has in a strange country, especially the humbleness of ignorance at a daunting new way of life: never imposing himself, simply observing. This child-like interest perhaps has lead to the delicate and exquisitely pretty songs, which, unlike many of his contemporaries, seem happy to be so beautifully uncompromising (even unchallenging, if you ignore the negative aspects of the term), the music is able to exist just as it is without demanding the listeners attention. Lucky Shiner is a postcard sent back home to the listener: modest, spontaneous and desperate to convey more than the sum of its parts; even the packaging of the CD is basic but earnestly interesting.

Strangely, Gold Panda has stuck to his tried-and-tested rhythmic structure, but it becomes as essential to the whole album as the drums do. Instead of seeming overdone, they become his natural means of expression, playing with the repetitive riffs with background melodies and the beat. The repetition is like the endless travelling he must have undertook in Asia, it is both necessary and guides the listener through the album, whilst also used to build the tracks into climaxes like in standard dance music. India Lately is the best example of this, a small riff that is the forefront of the first half of the track is brought back after disappearing, both re- contextualised against the clatter of live drums and acting as a reminder of the change the track has been through.

However, for a brief period around the half way mark the music seems to complacent in being just pretty enough, and while never being boring or uninteresting, it lacks the dynamism of the rest of the album. This perhaps is the only downfall of Lucky Shiner, it seems sometimes too wrapped up in its own little daydream to be able to convey the experience to the listener, and instead just flows on by, and tracks merge into one another without change. That said, the album is undeniably a very pretty one, and deeper than one may expect from the previous releases. Gold Panda has accomplished something very special in Lucky Shiner, he is able to take the listener on a journey without the audacity to act as any kind of authority, these are his mixed-up memories, dreams, wishes for the listener to get lost in.

You can listen to the entire album here:

myspace.com/luckyshiner

Something Different // Foals Covers //

With all the work I have at the moment I have been reasonably busy, so I haven't been up to any music reviews. So I thought I would mix it up a bit and write about something else, and anyway recently I have discovered some Foals covers (that is foals covering other bands) which deserve a listen.

Super Inuit (Holy Fuck Cover)



So this pretty much sounds nothing like the original, but the distortion makes a great change from their usual crispy clean sound.


One (Your Name) (Swedish House Mafia Cover)



The main riff is real easy to play on bass, and fun too.


Hollaback Girl (Gwen Stefani Cover)




The Bed's Too Big Without You (Police Cover)




Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears Cover)

Bunch of Tracks

Jamie XX // Far Nearer //

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-gYzHri30

Ramadanman // Pitter //

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0phGzrcTEE

James Blake // Limit To Your Love (Fiest Cover) //

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOT2-OTebx0

Gold Panda // India Lately //

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vv5dF_N7vY

I may actually write these up later, I will see how things go

oh, and this

http://www.readplatform.com/boiler-room-25-hessle-audio-ft-ben-ufo-james-blake-elgato-untold/

Rubber // Yuck // (Pharmacy Recording Company/ Fat Possum)

Yuck have announced their début album, which should be coming out early next year, and this track has been confirmed to be on the track list. Their previous songs have been awesome slices of shoegazey pop, but Rubber takes a darker, slower-paced, stretched-out turn, exposing an angrier, more disdainful side of their respective characters, which has been funnelled into this powerful 7 minute track. One guitar and the bass are dense like sludge, whilst another wistful guitar jangle plays over the top which creates a strange tension of power and delicacy. It neatly mirrors the ambivalent despair of the lyrics, "should I give in?" (which is suitably quiet, submerged in the noise) soon changes to "yes I give in" as the jangly guitar disappears. Yuck don't try to hide their influences and they show a certain element of knowing fun, after all their riffs are immense and lyrics are easy to sing along with. They could well help usher in the 90's revival which seems inevitable after the 80's revival of the last few years, but has not quite happened yet.

Rubber by Yuck

yuckband.blogspot.com

myspace.com/yuckband

Interesting article on the Guardian website //

"The music, which to some extent - speaking traditionally, as a voice of God, about a world where the music is God - is as close to prog as it is to house, drum'n'bass and jazz rock, sounds at its best and purest like it has always existed but we're only just hearing it. It exists just outside of time, between sudden quiet and sudden change, between being hyperlocal and instantly global, between particular space and all space."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/01/paul-morley-showing-off-dubstep

Klavierwerke EP // James Blake // (r&s)

There's an obscure argument for the existence for god that says that while an almighty being creating the universe is impressive, an almighty being who has some hindrance to his creative ability yet nevertheless manages to create the universe means that is even more impressive. Therefore (apparently) it follows that the most impressive thing of all would be for the supreme being to have the hindrance of not existing and still being able to create the universe, QED god exists. Of course the argument in this case is ridiculous, but in the unique case of James Blake the logic somehow holds. That is, the less actual sound he puts on a record, perversely the better the music is. Soon he will cover John Cage's 4:33 and it will be the best thing in the world.

So Kalvierwerke exists as disparate sounds spread thinly over a skeleton of silence, each piano arpeggio, each mournful sigh of Blakes' own voice painstakingly timed with expert precision. In the eponymous opening track, simple club throb accompanies the mix; distant and subdued like it is coming through the wall of an cold apartment at 2 in the morning. The vocal murmurs, and the empty instrumentation conspire to create an ethereal yet deeply emotional overtones. Any influence from dubstep seems ridiculous: this music exists in its own vacuum separate from the present; it takes as much inspiration from classical music, which is where the name originates too.

I Only Know (What I Know Now) is the best track on the EP, but all the tracks are similarly simple and imbued with paralysing loneliness. All these words seem to fail to describe something so beautifully pure and isolated, words are too verbose, ambiguous, crude to express the minutiae of the details of this exceptional release.

It can be heard on Spotify now:

James Blake – Klavierwerke EP

myspace.com/jamesblakeproduction

Fram // Blawan // (hessle audio)

Little is known about Blawan apart from that he is from Leeds and is signed to Hessle audio, and has released this impressive 12-inch. Both of the tracks are built on a skeleton of a tight dubstep beat, sparsely accompanied by whispers and sub-bass flicks. He may use the same formula on either track, but the intricacies of the beats are enough to drive the waxing and waning of the subdued synth ever onward. The whispers, omnipresent and ever hidden are a conversation that you can't quite discern in a crowded club, adding a slight hint of anxiety to the moody forefront. The components may be few and and simplistic, but they play off each other to create a danceable, if oppressive atmosphere. He may not do much to differentiate himself from his peers (Pangaea, for starters), but the tracks, Iddy especially, are a great introduction to this mysterious producer.

Fram:
youtube.com/watch?v=EWSHJ4Wjl2g

Iddy:
youtube.com/watch?v=8IXMTZ40Iy0

myspace.com/blawan

Forever Dancing // Masks // (fear & records)

A record with the word "dancing" used to be a pretty straightforward signifier that it was a dance record. But perhaps I have been jaded by songs like We still got the taste of dancing on our tongues by Wild Beasts so that now the word "dancing"seems too eerily simplistic to be used in the title of a dance song. The word is superfluous: if you are meant to dance to a song, you'll know about it by listening to it, and besides, "dancing" seems too twee a label, when compared with "skank".

Anyway, the eponymous opener does nothing to change my view of that word, as Forever Dancing opens with a jangly guitar line, but soon a monolithic and distorted guitar rumble piles on top, and so the record goes: the two piece add layer upon layer to their sound creating a dense but penetrable wall of noise. They harness the sound with a repetitive and fairly simple drum beat, but their biggest trick is an apparently offbeat electronic high hat that spontaneously joins the pounding bass and snare drums, a similar trick seen on many dance (there's that word again) records, revealing an innate rhythmic core.

Tribal Fangs doesn't hesitate with the house influence, opening with a four-on-the-floor beat, as an abrasive guitar noise rises. Masks make the best of the contrasting ideals of dance beats and noise music, much like Fuck Buttons on their second album, but here the songs are shorter and more accessible whilst including a more upfront melancholic edge; there is a definite shoegaze undercurrent on these tracks also. Unfortunately, the middle track I covered myself in furs plays the emotional edge too far forward and seems like it is trying too hard to be "epic", which is a shame as the second half is stellar.

myspace.com/wewearmasks